Editorials

Thursday, April 11, 1996

Lawmakers schooled
in making decisions

In past years, Hawaii's state legislators acted like procrastinating children. They diddled and dawdled until nearly the end of the session, when they would frenetically decide the fate of major and often controversial bills to meet their scheduled adjournment. Often, they couldn't complete their assignments and had to go into special session. This time, lawmakers appear to be better paced. The reason could be remarkably adept leadership - or because this is an election year.

Despite a myriad of issues to be dealt with, it's still the bud get, stupid. On Tuesday, senators unanimously approved a plan that would chop $175 million in spending and eliminate 1,400 state positions. Ways and Means Chairwoman Donna Ikeda de scribed it as a budget of "unprecedented austerity," familiar words to a private sector that has been pained by revenue loss es and job layoffs for years.

Thankfully, the odds on legalized gambling passing look slim, as well as dubious appropriations to fund an Office of the Legislative Analyst and to hire more private guards to beef up security at the Capitol. Still tenuously advancing are workers' compensation and no-fault insurance reform; ways to save money via furloughs, a payroll lag and downsizing; and much- needed scrapping of the "high-three" pension plan.

As the days tick down to a scheduled April 29 adjournment, irascible state Sen. Milton Holt seems out of control. Ignoring a hands-off directive from Senate President Norman Mizuguchi and Judiciary Chairman Rey Graulty on the topic of same-sex marriage, Holt gutted a bill without public notice and substituted its contents with an amendment declaring the purpose of marriage was to unite a man and a woman.

Mizuguchi and Graulty threw public and private tantrums, but essentially condoned Holt's actions by keeping his idea alive. In an exquisite example of child-like doublespeak, the naughty senator said in his defense, "I'd do it again. But I feel I'd do it again differently." Pardon?

Welcome to the political playground known as Hawaii's state Capitol.


Other editorials, in brief:

Water commission

Big Island rancher Herbert "Monty" Richards should be confirmed by the Hawaii Senate to membership on the state Commission on Water Resource Management. In naming Richards to the post in August, Governor Cayetano found a dedicated and able individual, who is not likely to be compromised by what his detractors have alleged are conflicts of interest.


Rosty the snowman

Less than two years ago, Dan Rostenkowski was one of the most powerful political figures in America, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a master of the U.S. tax code. Today the Chicago Democrat stands as a symbol of how power corrupts, even clouding one's own judgment about what is corrupt and what is not. Rostenkowski must pay $100,000 in fines and will have 17 months in prison to reflect on the illegalities that put him in striped pajamas.




Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips,CEO

John M. Flanagan,Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro,Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang,Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner,Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser,Contributing Editor



Text Site Directory: [News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Community] [Info] [Stylebook] [Feedback]